Acts 10:1-6, 9-16
Acts 13:1-3
How Can I Hear God?
The title of the message is "How Can I Hear God?" but another
question should be answered first, namely "Can I Hear God?" All three
of the accounts we have read tonight demonstrate one thing; namely,
people can hear God. The Bible is filled with people who heard the
voice of God speaking to them.
Adam, Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua,
Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, John the Baptist, Peter,
John, and many others.
Perhaps you are like someone I once spoke to who said, "I know those
in the Bible heard God, but can I? Is God still speaking to people
today? I affirmed He is. While I am no model, I tell you often that
I must hear from God to preach. I have no ability to speak except
what God gives to me.
Yet, many others here today can testify that they have heard God.
If you have ever been convicted and wounded over your sin, you heard
from God. If you have been saved, you have heard from God. If you
have ever felt God called you to task or ministry, you have heard
from God. Yea, so many can testify that they have heard from God.
But we will now be even more specific. Can we hear from God on a
regular basis? Can we hear from God when we read the Bible? When
we are lonely? When we need guidance? Can we hear from God in a
conversational way?
Again I say YES. This evening and perhaps for a while, I would like
to give some thoughts on what is necessary to hear from God.
I. To hear from God, you must begin your own personal, spiritual
quest.
A. To hear God is not a privilege that all who claim the name
Christian will have. All Christians can but all Christians
will not.
1. Hearing God is not a right given. It is a privilege
earned.
2. We will not have this privilege if we do not walk the
walk, talk the talk, and live the life.
3. I will tell you what this means in the remainder of the
message, but understand that just wanting to hear from
God does not mean that we will from God.
B. Also understand that this privilege does not come by riding
the coat tails of other Christians who hear from God.
1. You could be in the company of the Apostles Paul, Peter,
and John as they were hearing the voice of God and you
might not hear anything at all.
2. Paul gave an account of his salvation.
Acts 9:3 And as he journeyed, he came near
Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about
him a light from heaven:
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice
saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?
5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is
hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
7 And the men which journeyed with him stood
speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
3. Later, Paul retold the account slightly different.
Acts 22:9 And they that were with me saw indeed
the light, and were afraid; but they heard not
the voice of him that spake to me.
(a) Note: In Acts 9 they heard a voice.
(b) In Acts 22, they heard not the voice.
4. Is this a contradiction?
(a) I don’t think so.
(b) Paul meant that these others heard sounds, maybe
even the sound of a voice, but they could not
comprehend what it was they were hearing or what
the voice said.
5. Being in proximity to someone who hears from God does
not mean you will understand or even hear God’s voice.
6. To hear God’s voice is every Christians personal quest.
a. Your pastor, your church, your parents—it does not
matter who else hears from God.
b. If you want to hear from God, you must seek Him with
all of your heart, soul, and life.
C. To hear from God must be your desire, your objective, your
heart throb. You and only you are responsible for
accomplishing this quest.
II. To hear from God, you must draw near to God.
A. No one hears God from a distance. They must be close to God.
1. James tells us how this works.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh
to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and
purify your hearts, ye double minded.
2. As we draw closer to God, He draws closer to us.
a. To be far from God is emblematic language.
b. It means we must be detached from this world and
closely attached to God.
c. To be close to God means we cannot be living to self
and sin.
d. If we are, we need not to expect God to speak to us.
B. In that verse, James tells us HOW to draw near to God.
1. He lists actions for us to do.
a. Cleanse your hands, sinners. (Wash your hands of
sin.)
b. Purify your hearts, double-minded. (Make your mind
single. Focus it on Christ.)
2. But notice the big picture.
a. Our actions play a part in determining how close or
how far from God we are.
b. Hence,
(1) To hear from God, we must draw near to God.
(2) To draw near to God, we must walk the walk.
c. But there is more to consider about drawing close to
God.
3. The walk we live is determined by the heart we have.
a. Jesus Himself told us what the greatest commandment
is.
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of
all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord
our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the
first commandment.
b. If we want our walk to be right, we must first love
Him with all of our heart and let that love
transform our life.
4. So far we have three steps if we want to hear from God.
a. To hear from God, we must draw near to God.
b. To draw near to God, we must do the right actions.
c. To do the right actions, we must love God with all of
our hearts.
5. We can keep this going by asking more questions.
a. For example, "What kind of actions will we do if we
love God with all of our hearts?"
b. But what we should see by now is that to get close
enough to God to hear Him means we must put all that
the Bible teaches us to work in our lives.
C. If these things do not appeal to you, you will not hear from
God for you do not love Him with all of your heart.
1. Remember, a right heart will bring the right actions.
Wrong actions prove a wrong heart.
2. The place to start is not by doing the right actions, but
by developing the right heart.
3. If you want to develop the right heart, draw near to
God by:
(a) Thinking on Him.
(b) Meditating on how much He gave for you.
(c) Considering the love that He has proven He has for
you.
(d) Grow appreciation, devotion, gratitude, admiration,
thankfulness.
(e) In short, love Him.
4. Loving Him will bring the right actions.
5. The right actions will bring you close to Him.
6. Being close to Him will let you hear Him.
III. To hear from God, you must wait on God.
A. You cannot be in a hurry and hear from God.
1. God will not be rushed.
2. God is not on any man’s chain to be pulled when they are
ready.
B. Even the giants of the faith had to wait on God to hear Him
speak.
1. Luke described an occasion when the Apostle Paul was on
a ship in a terrible storm for many days.
Acts 27:21 But after long abstinence Paul stood
forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye
should have hearkened unto me, and not have
loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm
and loss.
22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for
there shall be no loss of any man’s life among
you, but of the ship.
23 For there stood by me this night the angel of
God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought
before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all
them that sail with thee.
2. Why was Paul gone such a long time? I believe he was
waiting to hear from God.
C. Again, Paul himself recorded having an affliction of the
flesh.
2Cor 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord
thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for
thee: for my strength is made perfect in
weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather
glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ
may rest upon me.
1. Why did Paul have to seek the Lord three different times
for this thing?
2. Because God made him wait.
3. If Paul had to pray about something three times, you and
I might expect to have to pray about it many more times.
Can I hear from God? Yes, you and I can, but it will cost something.
It will cost a permanent change in our priorities, our goals, our
ambitions, our desires, our loves--in our life, but what if we do not
make such a change. Then we will have disobeyed the first and the
most important of all commandments. What does that say about us?
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